King James Version

The Book of Genesis

1. Rearrange. Create more intimate furniture arrangements, or just try something new! Move seating to create areas where people can easily talk, or group them around the fireplace or other focal point.
   
   
2. Use candles! Candles are relatively inexpensive, and should not be saved just for special occasions! Group them together, combine them with plants, or set them in front of a mirror. If you feel using them too often will cramp your budget, set aside one meal a week where you ceremoniously use them, such as Sunday dinner.
   
   
3. Place throw blankets casually over chairs and sofas for your loved ones to cuddle up in. A great way to buy these inexpensively is to check your fabric store for clearance sales on polar fleece. Buy 1 to 1 ½ yards for each throw, then use scissors to cut fringe on the two ends. This fabric doesn't fray, comes in a wide array of patterns and solids, and does not need to be hemmed or sewn! I bought enough for several and paid less than five dollars for each throw! Oh, and did I mention it is extremely soft and warm?
   
   
4. Set out well read books on end tables to encourage those in your home to use those throws, and who can not remember a fond winter's day cuddled up in a warm sofa with your favorite novel? (Oh, and you might want to stock your pantry with cocoa and tea, just in case.J)
   
   
5. Layer your fabrics! Add one or two topper fabrics to your tables, layer several towels over each other in your bath and kitchen, add a valance to your window treatments. Remember this doesn't have to be expensive, use leftover fabric from your other projects, visit your local thrift store, or use unused quilts, coverlets, sheets, tablecloths, and cloth napkins from your linen closet.

• BULBS
  
  
  • Lift and store Begonia, Dahlia and Gladiolus.
  • Mark dormant bulbs so they won't be destroyed when ground is prepared for spring planting.
  • Be ready when the shipments of bulbs such as Crocus, Daffodils, Irises, Day lilies, Freesias, Hyacinth and Tulips arrive at nurseries; then plant immediately.
  • Early shopping guarantees best selections.
  • Water well to encourage root development and cover with plenty of mulch.
  
  
  
• FLOWERS:
  
  
  • October is the best month to transplant Perennials. Enrich beds with organic soil amendment.
  • Keep Marigolds blooming until the frost arrives. Feed, water and pick faded blooms. Shelter frost-tender plants or over winter cuttings.
  • Lift and divide plants that have finished blooming. Divide and re plant... Daisies, Callas, and Day lilies every few years for best bloom.
  • Remove suckers from Roses and Lilac. Spray or dust Roses to discourage mildew.
  
  
  
• VEGETABLES:
  
  
  • Store carrots in ground if they are in well drained soil.
  • By mid-October, or if frost is predicted, pick all tomatoes, whether they are ripe or not. Refrigerate or freeze ripe tomatoes.
  • Wrap green tomatoes or hang the entire plants (with unpicked fruit) upside down. Alternatively these can be stored in a brown paper bag in a cool dark area.
  • In late October cut back asparagus stalk to the ground. Mark the location. Mulch 3 to 4 inches.
  • Prepare vegetable beds for spring and remove all debris.
  
  
  
• GENERAL YARD & GARDEN CARE:
  
  
  • Clean up the planting areas as you harvest fruit, flowers, vegetables. Rake up fallen leaves and fruit. Compost all disease- free organic refuse. Destroy all disease infected refuse.
  • Protect container plants for winter. Mulch tender plants that can't be moved.
  • Continue watering lawns, trees, shrubs, vines and all new plantings until the rains come. Don't forget to water plants in sheltered areas. Well-watered plants survive freezing temperatures better than dry ones.
  • Prune trees and shrubs so that the air can flow through them freely in winter.
  • Cover open compost heaps with plastic when there are signs of heavy rains.
  • Set out a dish of beer for your slugs now. Remove dead slugs daily.
  
  
  
• FRUIT & BERRIES:
  
  
  • Spray your trees for peach leaf curl if they were victims this year.
  • Apply a dormant spray to reduce over wintering pests and fungus diseases when the leaves fall from fruit trees.
  • Mulch fruit and berries well to preserve moisture in the soil. They need alot of water. They are the only food that contain approximately 80% water.
  • Set out strawberries during fall rains for fruit next June. If planted in spring, plants won't bear well until the following year.
  
  
  
• LAWNS:
  
  
  • Cut back ground covers that have spread out of bounds. Prune vines and summer-blooming heather.
  • Plant flat and slightly sloped areas with ground cover so roots will get a head start before winter. Do not plant steep slopes or the rains will wash plants away.
  • Sow seeds for new lawns. If there is an early frost be sure to keep the ground moist so the seedlings will continue to develop roots until the ground freezes.
  • Grass grows best this time of year in the cooler, wetter conditions.
  
  
  

1. HEALTH
   
   
   • Your Health
     http://www.healthsurfing.com/resources/kids
     Whether you're online or offline, health is very important. The kids' section offers articles and links to many items that will assist in a healthy lifestyle.
     
     
   • Children's Health
     http://www.kidsdoctor.com
     It's byline states, "What every parent needs to know." You'll find articles and information on many of the everyday health issues.
     
     
   • Window to Health
     http://www.healthwindows.org
     The body, food, nutrition, safety, fun facts and links to many Web sites await you at Dr. B>'s site.
     
     
   • RidsHealth
     http://www.healthfinder.gov/kids
     The American Medical Association and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provide a wealth of information about children's health.
     
     
2. — Homeschooling —
   
   
   • Homeschool Central
     http://www.homeschoolcentral.com
     This is an interesting site, whether you re already homeschooling, just thinking about it or are looking to supplement- your child's education,
     
     
   • A-to-Z Homeschooling
     http://www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling
     You'll feel right at home with articles, sites, books, conferences and more related to homeschooling. Even if you're not a homeschooler, you'll find many fine things to explore.
     
     
   • About Homeschooling
     http://homeschooling.about.com
     It's all about homeschooling here. This site covers all the bases, from getting started to record keeping.
     
     
3. Math Links
   
   
   • Rough Guide to Math on the Web
     http://west.camel.math.ca/Kabol
     This self- proclaimed "Rough Guide to Math on the Web," provides interesting links to high quality math sites. At last count, there were nearly 300 listed.
     
     
   • Math Constants
     http://www.tcaep.co.uk
     Here's a comprehensive list of information sources on constants and equations. As a bonus, there's also a lot of stuff about astronomy.
     
     
   • The Joy of Pi
     http://www.joyofpi.com
     There's no flaky crust here; just everything you ever needed to know about 3.1415926535...
     
     
   • Prime Numbers
     http://www.utm.edu/research/primes
     Here's everything you ever wanted to know about prime numbers.

1. Caramel Popcorn Balls ~
   
   

   1/3 cup butter or margarine
   1/2 cup corn syrup
   1 cup brown sugar
   1 tsp. vanilla
   10 cups popped popcorn
   
   Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add corn syrup, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir & bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add popcorn & mix in. Put waxed paper on your countertop. Form popcorn balls and lay on wax paper to harden. Makes about a dozen balls.
   
   These stay fairly soft (a little easier on the teeth!).

   
   
   
2. Popcorn Balls ~
   
   

   10 cups popped popcorn
   1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
   1/2 cup water
   2/3 cup molasses
   1 tsp. vinegar
   1/4 tsp. salt
   3 tbs. butter or margarine
   
   Put sugar, water, molasses, vinegar and salt into a pot. Heat & stir until it starts to boil. Boil gently, without stirring, until it reaches the hard ball stage. Remove from heat. Add butter/ margarine. Pour over popcorn in a large bowl. Mix until popcorn is coated with syrup. Form into balls. Makes 12 - 15 popcorn balls.

   
   
   Hard ball stage is 270F or when you drop a bit in cold water and it forms a hard ball.
   
   
3. Colored Popcorn Balls ~
   
   

   12 cups popped popcorn
   1.5 oz flavored gelatin (any color jello powder)
   1/2 cup granulated sugar
   1/2 cup light corn syrup
   
   Put gelatin, sugar & syrup into a pot. Heat & stir to dissolve. Bring to a rolling boil. Pour over popcorn in a large bowl (you can lightly salt popcorn first if you like). Stir until all popcorn is coated. Form into balls with lightly buttered hands (I spray with Pam!). Makes about a dozen popcorn balls.
   
   Use whatever color suits the occasion. For Halloween use orange jello. You can put `faces' on your popcorn balls with candy. For Christmas make a bowl full of red & green balls. For Easter use pastel colors.

• Backdoor kitchen garden
  
  Thomas Gaston of Menlo Park, California, created what might be called the ultimate easy-care, easy-to-pick kitchen herb garden, just two steps from his back door. Gaston learned about herbs from his Swiss mother, an avid herbalist. "All Swiss are herbalists to some degree," he says. "I guess I'm carrying on the tradition." He started with mints; they're invasive, so he contained them in old chimney pipes left over from remodeling. The rest of the herbs were at ground level. But Gaston liked not having to bend over, so he put many of the others in raised containers, too. Mainstays for cooking (all in containers) are thyme, tarragon, spearmint, peppermint, rosemary, oregano, and marjoram. In the ground beneath, he grows basil, caraway-scented thyme, chives, garlic chives, Greek oregano, lemon and lime thyme, lemon verbena ("I dry it and make sachets for the linen closet"), parsley, and sage. Maintenance is simple. Gaston installed a drip-irrigated system with hidden emitter lines that climb the backs of the containers. When plants get woody, he cuts them back to initiate new growth. Basil and parsley are replanted every year.
  
  
• A Shakespearean garden
  
  After researching herb gardening. Sheryl Lozier of Flinn Springs, east of San Diego, realized that an herb garden, like other kinds of gardens, needs a focal point. She chose a favorite sundial (a bench, bird feeder, or topiary also would work), and designed her garden around it. The garden radiates from the center, Which Lozier says is a colonial design that she finds appropriate for her country garden. A split-rail fence adds to the rustic look. Lozier decided she needed a theme for the plants, too, so she chose plants that Shakespeare wrote about. Many of them are culinary - Greek oregano, lavender, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and thyme (she grows five kinds: camphor thyme, caraway-scented thyme, elfin thyme, mother-of-thyme, and woolly thyme).
  
  Among the flowering plants are ones she dries and uses in wreaths. Kinds include armeria, catmint, dianthus, larkspur, Queen Anne's lace, salvias, yarrow, and old-fashioned-looking David Austin's English roses. Lozier lets her plants grow unchecked through spring. "I love the wild look - everything gets big and beautiful." Around the Fourth of July, before it gets hot, she cuts back plants for potpourri, collects seed of larkspur and Queen Anne's lace, and harvests herbs. The garden suffers in the summer, but when the heat breaks in fall the plants perk up again. In winter, the garden gets another round of maintenance, and most things get cut back. But the garden isn't entirely bare. Lozier plants pansies for color and often has roses blooming in winter. "The land around us is our inspiration for herb gardening," explains Lozier, referring to the foothills near San Diego in which she lives. "Gardening is a real pleasure with our healthy soil and great weather."
  
  
• A matter of thyme
  
  When Olive Curtis of Acme, Washington, was a busy home economics teacher, she and her students used dried herbs out of jars. Now that she's retired and has time to grow her own herbs - as well as teach cooking classes - she uses fresh herbs exclusively. One of her favorites is thyme. Six years ago, Curtis told her husband that she needed more room for her new passion, herb hardening. "He told me, 'You can have the lawn,' so I took him up on it," says Curtis. A friend helped her husband take down huge birch and cedar trees. Then the lawn came out. "I like circles and meandering path," she says, "so first I put in a curving brick path. Then I planted a circular thyme garden bordered by rocks and divided into sections with bricks." The garden now contains 100 thyme plants of eight kinds. At the center is woolly thyme; around the outside is creeping thyme. The sections contain English, French, Dutch tea, lemon, orange balsam, and variegated lemon thymes. "I used to have more kinds, but some froze. Now I mulch heavily with bark in winter and, as a security and to fill in the following spring, I take many cuttings, which over-winter indoors." The rest of her garden expanded to include many more herbs and flowering plants. She now has a semicircle of chives, a sage garden, and a cutting garden of culinary herbs. For convenience, she has pots of herbs on her deck that she harvests at the last minute to sprinkle into soups, breads, and sauces.
  
  
• Medicinal garden in Gold Country
  
  For more than 15 years, Candis Packard has been fascinated by herbs. For the last 11 of them, she has been developing her herb garden in the Sierra foothills in Placerville, California. She bought her three acres not because of the house, which she barely took notice of, but because of the beautiful land and its incredible soil. The topsoil runs 18 to 20 inches deep. Her intent was to cultivate a botanical herb garden.
  
  "All of the herbs I grow are for my family's use, but they're also part of my demonstration garden," explains Packard. "I teach herbalogy and prefer that the students develop a relationship with living plants instead of just dried materials." The main herb garden was designed to reflect a Native American medicine wheel, with the paths following the cardinal points. The herbs come from around the world. They're not arranged in any particular order, but since it gets very hot in the Sierra foothills, Packard planted them according to their needs for sun, shade, and moisture. Most of the herbs are medicinal. But Packard also has planted some flowers strictly for show. At the wheel's center are calendula, garden sage, and pennyroyal. Petunias and sweet alyssum add long-lasting color. In surrounding beds, Packard grows five kinds of echinacea, used for colds and to aid the immune system, and low hedges of chrysanthemum, whose flowers are used to reduce fevers and inflammations. Beneath large oak trees, Packard planted shade-loving herbs such as angelica, Chinese foxglove (Glutinosa), skullcap (Scutellaria laterifolia), and wood betony (Stachys officinalis). She also grows rare herbs from China and India, including astragalus (Mongolicus), dong quai (Angelica sinensis), fo-ti (Polygonum multiflorum), which climbs on a tripod, and ashwaghanda (Withania somnifera). An unusual herb in her garden grew in almost every European garden in the 1500s. It's called costmary (Chrysanthemum balsamita) or bible-leaf plant because its 4- to 5-inch-long leaves made good bookmarks. It's used to reduce fevers and aid digestion, and has a sweet minty taste. To keep the beds healthy and to reduce water use in her hot climate, Packard adds composted manure, compost, and worm casings. Then she fertilizes with fish emulsion and kelp during the growing season. Since Sierra soils are low in phosphorus, she also adds organic phosphate. The entire garden is on an irrigation system - sprinklers for the lawn and soaker hoses, sprayers, and emitters for the rest of the plants.
  
  
• A Victorian herb garden with a casual flair
  
  Peter and Carol Ann Irsfeld of Cambria, California, wanted their herb garden to be both useful and decorative, since it would be in front of their Victorian home, a bed-and-breakfast called the Ollalieberry Inn. They chose a formal design to suit the house's era, with paths radiating from a circle accented by an old birdbath. But that's where the formality ends. "We didn't want anything with too much structure," explains Peter. "The garden has a cottagey feel." The plants in the free-form beds are a mixture of culinary, fragrant, and flowering herbs. "Ninety percent of the plants are herbs, but we use only 40 to 50 percent of them," says Peter. Favorites for cooking are chives, French thyme, golden marjoram, oregano, rosemary, savory, and society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea). "We enjoy going out and picking herbs to make meals for the guests. One of the favorite evening hors d'oeuvres is goat cheese and roasted garlic with fresh herbs."
  
  They planted other old-world herbs such as catmint, comfrey, lamb's ears, and lemon verbena. For fragrance and color, they added herbs such as feverfew, lavender, and rosemary. Long-blooming perennials such as Santa Barbara daisy and penstemon provide points of interest. More pungent herbs like rosemary and lavender are used freely inside the inn. "We like to use them around the house instead of traditional flowers," says Peter. "People enter and often ask us what the wonderful smell is." Maintenance is straightforward. Cooking herbs are constantly being nipped at, which keeps them in bounds. The garden also gets several prunings through the year - one major pruning in winter, when most things get whacked back (the Irsfelds add winter vegetables to fill in bare spots), and two or three less severe trims in late spring and summer to control growth.